Nelson Bennett writes for Resource Works:
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, when I covered treaty negotiations on Vancouver Island for the Nanaimo Daily News, provincial negotiators and government officials took great pains to reassure the press and public that private lands and provincial parks were not on the table for treaty settlements.
Now, under the David Eby government and DRIPA, both are on the table.
As was reported earlier this week, two provincial parks could become treaty land in settlements with the Songhees and T’Sou-ke First Nations. And Joffre Lakes provincial park continues to be a sore point.
For the last few years, it has been closed to the public for periods of time to allow the Lilwat Nation exclusive access and use, despite the fact that Lilwat never joined the B.C. Treaty negotiations process or otherwise demonstrated rights or title to the park.
“Unless they’ve proven Aboriginal title, there’s nothing in the constitution that provides for the exclusive use of public land,” says Warren Mirko, executive director for the Public Land Use Society.
“Can you deny access to public land based on somebody’s otherwise protected characteristic under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms—like their race, gender, ancestry, etcetera?” Mirko asks. “And the answer, on its face, is no.”
The periodic closure of Joffre Lakes to the public is just one of a growing number of causes the Public Land Use Society has taken up over the last year and a half, since its formation. Almost all of them relate to the Eby government’s DRIPA-informed Aboriginal reconciliation agenda.